Pitch Count

It was a #badloss, and the line of questioning afterward appealed to Charlie Manuel about as much as his late-inning bullpen bridge to closer Jonathan Papelbon. Already grumpy after watching Antonio Bastardo turn seven shutout innings from Cole Hamels into a 3-1 deficit in the top of the eighth inning, Manuel also had to answer for his own handling of the bench Sunday as the Phillies tried to rally in the bottom of the eighth in the first game of a doubleheader. "You guys ought to sit in the dugout with me and give me all the scenarios if you don't think I know them," the manager told reporters, mixing his Southern drawl with biting sarcasm.

Cole Hamels and Charlie Manuel weren't going to push the pitch-count meter. The Phillies lefthander threw seven shutout innings, allowing three hits, walking three, and striking out seven in the Phillies' 3-2 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays in the first game of a split doubleheader Sunday at Citizens Bank Park. The reason for his departure while holding a 1-0 lead was his pitch count. Hamels had thrown 111 pitches, and both he and Manuel thought that was more than enough. "Unfortunately, when you get to that sacred [pitch-count]

For eight innings Monday, the Phillies matched reigning Cy Young Award winner Clayton Kershaw with a starter who hadn't pitched in 24 days and two lefthanded relievers stretched to their limits. Then Metallica blared in a wet, half-full ballpark and a tie game soon became a Phillies loss. It fell on the shoulders of closer Jonathan Papelbon, who turned a tie into a loss for the second time in 2012. This one was a 4-3 Los Angeles Dodgers victory, fueled by the legs of Dee Gordon, and represented a fine opportunity lost by the Phillies.

NEW YORK - It was the perfect time for a breakout, a team dealing with more injury issues and a player mired in one of the mini slumps that mark the long 162-game season. Ty Wigginton brought back memories of yesteryear, or at least April, and his career day couldn't have occurred at a more opportune time. Wigginton went 3 for 3 with a double, home run and a career-high six RBIs as the Phillies beat the New York Mets, 8-4, in a Memorial Day afternoon matchup at Citi Field.

SO, WHERE DID you go the first thing Saturday morning? If the answer is Wildwood or some other Jersey Shore outpost, Joey Gorman is slightly jealous . . . Then again, his first move helped Ss. Neumann-Goretti High win another Catholic League baseball championship (second in row; third in 4 years). For about 2 weeks, since making an awkward throw in a Blue Division finale against Bishop McDevitt, Gorman had felt pain in the left part of his back. "I was figuring, 'I'm a kid. Kids don't have back trouble,' " Gorman said.

The rainouts for some high school baseball teams on Monday and Tuesday actually might be a good thing for preserving arms. The NJSIAA pitching rules appear to be lenient. For instance, under the rules, a pitcher can throw up to 10 innings on a Monday and up to 10 innings on a Friday. While this is an extreme example, the fact is that a pitcher can throw 20 innings within five days. Is that very stringent? One of the rules states that if a pitcher throws more than five innings, he must have three full days of rest.

THIS TIME AROUND, only the sight of bone popping through skin would have kept Eric McGough off the mound for the seventh inning. Not again, in effect, would he leave the dance without asking the most beautiful girl for a slow one. On April 4, McGough, a 5-11, 170-pound junior righthander at Archbishop Carroll High, pitched six innings of no-hit ball vs. Lansdale Catholic and then, with his pitch count at 92 and his arm "not really hurting,...

PITTSBURGH - Closers are different. That is a fact acknowledged by everyone who has ever set foot in a baseball clubhouse. What's amazing is that they can be different in so many different ways. "He's typical, I guess," Roy Halladay said Thursday after he combined with new closer Jonathan Papelbon to blank the Pittsburgh Pirates in the Phillies' 1-0 opening-day victory at PNC Park. Halladay meant that Papelbon was typical because he has proven to be every bit as different as every closer he has met during his well-decorated career.

Archbishop Carroll relied on the strong arm of Eric McGough and a late, fortunate bounce to edge host Lansdale Catholic, 5-4, in Wednesday afternoon's Catholic League baseball matchup. McGough didn't allow a hit in six innings, but was removed before the seventh as his pitch count totaled 93 and Carroll held a 5-1 lead. In the absence of the junior hurler, Lansdale stormed back with three runs and loaded the bases with two outs. Rick DiDominico's wild pitch bounced off the back stop and was recovered by catcher Dan Santoleri, who fired back to DiDominico for the game-ending out at home plate.

Pitch counts are way cool. We have no idea who invented this baseball statistic, but it has grown enough in prominence that it has its own Wikipedia page, a sure sign that the people out there in cyberspace believe it is a very important thing. At the risk of relaying misinformation, Wikipedia tells us that "pitch counts are especially a concern for young pitchers, pitchers recovering from injury, or pitchers who have a history of injuries. " Citation needed. Here is more from Wikipedia: "Before pitch counts became prominent in the 1980s, a pitcher pitched until he could no longer get anyone out or the game was over.